CNN’s Chris Wallace Says Latest DOJ Pushback Against Trump-Appointed Judge’s Order ‘Does Make Some Sense’

 

CNN anchor Chris Wallace said the Justice Department’s latest pushback against a Trump-appointed Judge’s order delaying investigative work into former President Donald Trump “makes some sense.”

was only asked two questions by Democrats at her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing.

This week, District Court Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that a special master must be appointed to review documents seized during the FBI in the search of  Mar-a-Lago, and enjoined the Justice Department from using the documents in its investigation of Trump for crimes involving the Espionage Act in the interim.

Yesterday, the Justice Department made a counter-offer in a motion that asked for access to just the classified documents seized in the raid while the special master reviews everything else.

On Friday morning’s edition of CNN’s New Day, co-anchor Brianna Keilar and John Berman hosted Wallace to discuss the development, and Keilar asked Wallace if the DOJ’s argument makes a “believable point?”

Wallace explained why he thinks the Justice Department’s position “does make some sense”:

BRIANNA KEILAR: A lot of legal experts looked at this initial injunction and thought it was too much, that it was too much what the judge was doing. But what she at least appeared to be doing was saying, okay, this investigation the DOJ is doing, you are not going to have access to these documents.

But the damage assessment, this intel damage assessment about, hey, with these documents having been floated out there, how much damage was done, that could continue.

Well, now DOJ is coming back and saying, actually, no, it can’t. That’s actually not how it works. And it has actually stalled it. Is that a believable point? Does that make sense to you that they’re saying that?

CHRIS WALLACE: Well, I mean, that, we don’t usually say this. I have no idea whether it’s a believable point, but that’s certainly what they’re going to argue. They want a decision by Judge Cannon by next Thursday.

And that’s their argument, that that they can’t. Well, here’s why I think that it does make some sense, because they’re saying in, in assessing the damage that was done by having these documents there, one of the things they’ve got to do is find out who had access to the documents, and did anybody except the former president actually look at the documents, somebody who didn’t have top secret clearance.

So if you don’t have the documents, then it’s harder to pursue that part of the investigation to find out whether or not other people actually saw them.

BRIANNA KEILAR: They need the cooperation of DOJ. They need that information the DOJ would have.

CHRIS WALLACE: Yeah, absolutely. And DOJ is saying we need to have access to that to be able to talk, to investigate it, and then to talk to the intelligence community and sort this whole thing out.

Watch above via CNN.

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